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The club put on a special Q+A evening at the Boleyn Ground last night to give a select number of season ticket holders the opportunity to grill Sam Allardyce, Kevin Nolan and David Gold about current affairs surrounding the club.

Of course, each of them were quizzed about club’s current position in the Premier League and whether we have what it takes to pull ourselves away from the relegation places, while David Gold and Sam Allardyce were specifically asked about what happened in the summer transfer window.

Our man Brad Pinard had the pleasure of being there and hearing what they had to say first hand. So in part one of three, here are Sam Allardyce’s best comments from the evening…

Sam Allardyce…

…on current form

“Goals have not been as easy to come to by as they were last season. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about it and, in actual fact, I don’t want to really be talking about it any more because the whole staff and the players know the responsibility of scoring goals. It’s very important, but more important now as we go on.

“We seem to cure it for short spells. Fulham a week ago, we were all on a high and played exceptionally well, deservedly winning 3-0. And then we go away to Crystal Palace and lose 1-0, which is a game that we didn’t want to lose. We failed in front of goal again and we ended up losing that.

“We had a very good start to the week and then finished it not so well. Not so much the Liverpool result, but the Crystal Palace one was disappointing.”

…December’s run of games

“We should be aiming for a minimum of six points in December. When you play Arsenal or Manchester United, anything that you gain is a massive bonus.

“We are always trying to beat the big boys, or certainly get some points against the big boys. I think the ironic thing for me is that the disappointment, from a results point of view, since that outstanding victory against our local rivals Tottenham, I thought that was going to be a real turning point for us and we’ll push on from there. But that’s not happened.

“So I’d say, realistically, a minimum of six. If they [United and Arsenal] do play their best football with the teams and the squads they’ve got, even though we may play our best on the night, that still might not be good enough.

“But certainly against Sunderland and West Brom, if we play our best we can get the wins we have been looking for.”

…points target for the season

“We will certainly continue to try and achieve last year’s total, maybe slightly better. We’ve had a poor run of points total but, if you remember last year, the first eight games we got 14 points, the next eight games we only got eight and then the next we only got five.

“So the two periods after that great start saw sixteen games and only 13 points. We’re having that bad run at this moment in time and we’ve got to turn that bad run in to a good run and try and get 14 points out of eight games, which takes the pressure off of everybody.”

…on the club’s youth players

“We tried Danny Potts again this year. Leo Chambers and Pelly Ruddock have also played in the team, and obviously Ravel. Lot’s of our young players went in to those games in pre-season to see what level they had achieved in terms of whether we would invite them in to the squad, in to the first-team dressing room. At this moment in time none of those players lived up to the talent or expectation that they have shown in the U21s, apart from Ravel, obviously.”

“The bottom line is that you have got to stay in the Premier League. That’s my format, my desire. It’s the owner’s desire. It’s Nolan’s desire. But playing too many youngsters doesn’t always keep you there and might put that progress in to jeopardy.”

…on the Capital One Cup quarter-final against Spurs

…on the summer transfer window

What do you think about Sam Allardyce’s comments? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.